Yearbook
by Marquin Inc
Summary: After Johnny and Dally die,Ponyboy just isn't the same.He just can't help but look at the place where Johnny's picture would be in the yearbook.Then suddenly,Pony's yearbook goes missing.Was there really more to Johnny's death than the others knew?
1. Picture Unavailable

_Hello everyone, welcome to the minds of _Heaven_ and _**Angel**_ Marquin. This was just a little something we came up with one day. _**Based on yet another of my paranoid thoughts. **Because she IS paranoid. I don't buy into the whole thing. She's crazy. **...So? Without my paranoia, we might not have this story. What then? **Shut up._ Anyway! We used to like Hanson, believe it or not. This is the very first thing we're posting on this, so we hope you like it. _**Maybe someone else will agree with my conspiricy theory. **...Doubtful. **Shut up.**

**Disclaimer: **_We own no one from _The Outsiders_, nor do I own the song _"Yearbook". _They belong to S. E. Hinton and Hanson respectively. We think the idea is our's, but then again, it might not be._

_**Picture Unavailable...**_

It just wasn't the same. No matter how much I wanted it to be the same, it wasn't. No Johnny, no Dally... It was all so... different. Like someone had taken a knife and cut out a big part of my life. All around me, school buzzed alive and people laughed, but I wasn't laughing. There wasn't anything to laugh about. How could the be so insensitive? How could they not care about the tragedy? Some of them had known Johnny or Dallas, yet they just carried on like nothing happened. It seemed as if I was the only one in the world who hurt. Maybe I was. Maybe I hurt enough for everyone and they didn't feel because I felt too much.

The yearbooks came in a week before summer vacation. When the teacher called my name, I went up to the front to collect mine, trying to ignore the whispers as I passed through the rows of seats. Did they think I didn't hear them? I knew what they were saying. 'There goes that boy who was in that fire.' 'Yeah, the other two died.' 'They were hoods.' 'One of them killed Bob.' With a sympathetic look, the teacher handed me my book. Everyone looked at me like that nowadays. I couldn't stand it. I went back to my seat and went thumbing through the pages.

Something was making me turn to that section. I knew I shouldn't. It hadn't even been a whole year since it happened, but I still had to look. I knew it would be in there. Somehow, I knew. There it was in bold black letters. _'Johnny Cade. Picture Unavailable.'_ Well, what had I expected? An answer to all of my problems? If only it were that easy...

Lunch didn't come quick enough that day. I walked out to the parking lot with Two-Bit and Steve, silent as usual, and went into the store to get a Pepsi. I barely tasted it as I chugged it. Thinking of Johnny always took the taste away from my food or drinks. There were times I wondered why that happened. Silence sat thick between us in the car. Two-Bit and Steve knew I got like this every once in awhile when I thought about Johnny. They didn't bother me none about it, and for that I was greatful. I needed these little moments of silence.

I sat through the rest of my classes pretty quiet that day. Johnny was on my mind. _'Stay gold,' _he had said. I knew I would never forget those words. Never in my whole life.

The sun shone brightly as I truged my way home. Track practice ran late and I didn't have a ride. The day could have been worse, I suppose. At least it was warm and bright. This time, I didn't forget my shoes. I hummed some random Elvis song as I walked on my way.

"Ponyboy! Hey, wait up!"


	2. Missing

_**Missing...**_

Bright red hair caught my eye as I turned to the voice. Cherry Valance... Since Johnny's death, it seemed like she had avoided me. There was always an awkward silence between us. I suppose there really wasn't anything to talk about. Just sunsets. And I didn't notice them very much anymore.

"Hey, Cherry," I said.

"I just wanted to say hi. Saw you walking and we haven't talked in awhile. How are you doing?"

How was I doing... Wasn't that a question for the ages. _'Well, Cherry,' _I thought. _'Two of my friends just died. I'm just peachy, how are you?' _To her credit, though, Bob had also died... So we were sort of in the same boat.

"Pretty good, thanks. And you?"

She paused for a moment. I took that time to look her over. She still looked like the same beautiful Cherry Valance. Cherry the soc. Yes, she was still a soc. Why did I still see her like that when I knew there was more to her? Probably because that mask she put up to fool everyone was quite convincing. This was the first time she'd ever talked to me while we were at school.

"I'm okay," she said. She wasn't. I knew she wasn't. If she wanted to say she was, though, I'd let her. I knew how she was feeling. Losing someone close is always hard. That's one of the constants in life. It always hurts.

"That's good. So, how's cheerleading?"

"Oh, it's--"

Cherry was cut off as someone ran into her. The boy rattled off an apology then ran off after his girlfriend who was walking away at a rapid pace. They were in my biology class. Those two had that kind of relationship that was always on-again off-again. Well, when the boy ran into Cherry, she ran into me, sending the two of us and our things flying to the ground. I wasn't carrying my booksack today, so my books went everywhere. I scrambled around, picking up my things and Cherry's at the same time, her doing the same. We finally got everything in order, and stood back up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Pony, I'm okay," she sighed. "That Marty's just a creep sometimes. Espically when he's fighting with Mary."

I looked up as a car horn beeped. Two-Bit and Steve were sitting at the corner, waiting for me.They waved at Cherry, though I knew neither of them really were that glad to see her. They blamed the socs for Johnny and Dally's deaths. We all did, somewhere deep in us. Cherry was a soc, no matter how much she helped us or how many sunsets she looked at.

"I'll see you later, Cherry," I said as I started towards the car.

"Pony, I--" I turned to look at her, but before she could speak, another honk interrupted her.

"What?"

"Nevermind, Ponyboy."

I shrugged and ran over to the car, then hopped in. Even though I ran track, I didn't like to walk home. There was always a chance of getting jumped by socs.

"Wanna go to a movie," Two-Bit asked. It was the first time we had been to the movie since that night at the drive-in, or even suggested going to see one.

"Yeah."

When we got to my house, I ran inside and dropped my stuff off. I told Darry where I was going, which was okay with him since it was a Friday night and we weren't going to do anything anyway. Soda was sitting on the couch, reading the same magazine he'd been reading for three weeks for lack of better reading material. He'd came down with the flu bug and been confined to the house.

"My yearbook's on the bed if you wanna look through it," I told him. "Know you'll get a laugh about what everyone wrote me." Soda had always been popluar in high school despite his greaser state, and his yearbooks were filled with friendly comments and girls' phone numbers. Compared to his, mine was as good as empty.

"Yay," he cried, jumping up and running to our room. "I can look for the next girl I can pick up!"

Darry and I laughed. We both knew that Soda wasn't really going to look for girls in the yearbook. Not seriously, anyway. He hadn't been on a date since Sandy. One day, he would date again. Perhaps one day he will get over her. I know Darry prays for it just as hard as I do.

"Hey! There's no yearbook in here!"

"Soda..." The car horn honked outside. I sighed. "Soda, just keep looking! I've gotta go!"

Steve ran in the door and back into our room to find Soda. I knew he wasn't going to hang around me all night, even if Two-Bit was willing to. He never did like me, and probably never will. I ran out to the car. Two-Bit took off to the drive-in.


End file.
